LivingMatrix, Inc. Application Privacy Policy

Welcome to LivingMatrix Inc. (“LivingMatrix,” “we” or “us”). We operate this website and other health, wellness, diet and fitness websites that are part of the LivingMatrix Network (each a “Site” and collectively, the “Sites”), including the network’s flagship property at livingmatrix.com. The Sites provide a variety of online services and products, including articles, blogs, newsletters, tools, and social networking platforms (collectively, the “Services”). We are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of your information and providing a safe and secure environment for you, our users.

With this in mind, we provide you this Website Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) to help you understand the kinds of information we may gather about you when you visit the Sites or use any of our Services on the Sites, how we may use and disclose the information, and how you can control, correct and/or update the information.

To be clear about the terminology we are using, when we use the phrase “Personal Information” in this Policy, we mean information about you that is personally identifiable, like your name, address, e-mail address, or phone number, as well as other non-public information that is associated with this personal information. When we use the phrase “Anonymous Information” in this Policy, we mean information that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Information. Anonymous Information does not enable identification of or contact with individual persons.

Your Personal Information may be processed by us in the country where it was collected as well as other countries (including the United States) where laws regarding processing of Personal Information may be less stringent than the laws in your country.

This Policy applies to all Sites and Services that are operated by LivingMatrix, including this website. In addition to this general policy, each Site may have additional privacy provisions that are specific to the particular Site. These supplemental disclosures are made in the Site-specific addenda below or in a disclosure adjacent to the particular Service at the time we collect the information. These supplemental disclosures also govern the use of your information.

For individuals located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland or the United Kingdom, all processing of your personal information (such as your name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or data specific to your physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity) by LivingMatrix is performed in accordance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”), effective May 25, 2018.

The Information We Gather

We collect information about you in three ways:

Information You Voluntarily Provide Us

We collect and maintain information that you voluntarily submit to us during your use of the Sites and Services. For example:

when you register for a Site, you may provide us certain information including your name, email address, screen name, password, demographic information, and the health topics that interest you;

to engage a Site’s social networking function, you may add to your profile by providing information about your interests or health topics. For example, your profile may list your favorite technologies or interests;

if you sign-up to receive a newsletter, enter a contest or participate in social networking activities, we may require that you provide us contact information (e.g., email or physical address);

if you purchase a product or service through a Site, we collect credit card information; and

you may provide us with personal information in the course of email, customer support interactions and surveys.

You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but this may stop you from gaining access to a Service or limit the features that you can use. For more information on the types of information we collect, please see the section “How We Use Information We Gather” below.

Information We Collect through your Use of the Sites

As you use the Sites and Services, certain information may also be passively collected. Through technologies like Cookies (as defined below), pixels, beacons and log files, we may collect information about how you use the Sites and the Services. For example we may determine through your IP address that you are located in New York City and we may deliver advertisements promoting New York City-based businesses. By knowing about you, we can deliver more helpful information, programs, tools and advertisements. Please see the section “To Provide, Personalize, Measure and Improve our Advertising” for more information.

Information We Receive from Third Parties

In addition to the information that you provide or we collect on the Sites or through the Services, we may verify or collect certain information about you from third parties. For example, we may use your email address to determine your street address or we may use your street address to obtain demographic information about you or the 9-digit ZIP code (ZIP+4) in which you live. This information may include household income, presence and age(s) of children, and other census data. We may combine this third-party information with the information we have already collected from you via our Sites and Services. We protect and use this third-party information in the same way that we treat other Personal Information in conformance with this Policy.

How We Use Information We Gather

We will use your Personal Information in the ways described below or described at the time that the information is collected.

To Provide the Sites and ServicesWe process your Personal Information given our legitimate interest in improving the Sites or Services and your experience with it, and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of a contract with you, including to:

Administer your account;

Register you and provide you access to the Sites or Services;

Respond to your inquiries or requests that you direct to us;

Send communications and administrative emails about the Sites or Services;

Personalize and better tailor the features, performance and support of the Sites and Services for your use;

Send you promotional/marketing information, newsletters, offers or other information regarding opportunities and functionality that we think would be of particular interest to you (provided that we will not give your Personal Information to any third-party advertising partner without your consent);

Improve the quality of the Sites and the Services; and

Analyze, benchmark and conduct research on user data and user interactions with the Sites and Services.

To Provide, Personalize, Measure and Improve our Advertising

We will process your Personal Information for the purposes listed in this section given our legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer you products or services that may be of interest to you. Accordingly, we customize the advertisements that you see based upon: (i) the information that you knowingly provide us (e.g., age, gender, stated health interests and other information in your profile); (ii) geographic location which we determine through your IP address; (iii) data we receive from third parties or (iv) your behavior on the Sites.

To help us customize the advertisements, we use Cookies, web beacons, log information and IP addresses in the ways described above and below. (“Cookies” are small pieces of information that a website attaches to your browser when you visit the website.) We may use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your computer until deleted) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience with the Sites and Services. For example, we may use Cookies to control what advertisements you see, the sequence of advertisements and to make sure you do not see the same advertisement too many times. For contests or sweepstakes, we may use Cookies to track your progress and the number of entries in some promotions. For polls, we may use Cookies to help ensure that an individual cannot vote more than once on a particular question or issue. We do not store Personal Information in any Cookies on your computer. Persistent Cookies can be removed by following your Internet browser’s directions within the help tab. To use certain Services offered through the Sites, your web browser must accept Cookies. If you choose to disable Cookies, some aspects of the Sites may not work properly, and you may not be able to access our Services.

We may also use Cookies, pixels, “Web Beacons” (which are usually small, transparent graphic images) and navigational data like Uniform Resource Locators (URL) to gather information regarding the date and time of your visit, the features and information for which you searched and viewed, the email you opened, or on which of the advertisements displayed on the Sites you clicked. This type of information is collected to make the Sites and Services more useful to you and to tailor the experience with us to meet your special interests and needs.

An “Internet protocol address” or “IP Address” is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. We, or our service providers, may track your IP Address when you access the Sites or Services to assist with delivering geographically targeted advertisements.

We understand that some people prefer not to receive targeted advertising, but there are a few ways that you can limit the customization of the advertising we deliver to you.

You can limit the way that we target advertising based on your self-reported interests and some other information in your profile by clicking on the “profile” section of a Site and deleting or modifying the information. Please see the section below on “Control of Personal Information” for more information.

How We Disclose Information to Third Parties

We know how important it is to keep the information you’ve entrusted to us confidential. We will not share, rent, or sell your Personal Information with third parties except as specifically approved or under the circumstances described below. If you do not want us to use or disclose Personal Information collected about you in the ways identified in this Policy, you should not use the Sites or Services.

For Legal Reasons

We may disclose and release your Personal Information to third parties if we have a good-faith belief that disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to: (a) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request; (b) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or (c) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of LivingMatrix, our users or the public as required or permitted by law.

Affiliates and Service Providers

We may provide your Personal Information to our current and future affiliates or to third-party service providers who work on our behalf or help us to operate our business, the Sites and the Services, based on our instructions and in compliance with this Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. Examples of such service providers include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content for sending email, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing payments (including credit card payments), and providing customer service. Access to your Personal Information by these service providers is limited to the information reasonably necessary to perform a limited function. Service providers may be located inside or outside of the EEA.

Aggregated, Anonymous Information

We may share aggregated Anonymous Information (meaning information about our users that we combine together so that it no longer identifies or references an individual user) and other anonymized information for regulatory compliance, industry and market analysis, demographic profiling, marketing and advertising, and other business purposes. Depending on the circumstances, we may or may not charge third parties for this aggregated information, or limit the third parties’ use of the aggregated information.

Contests, Sweepstakes and Polls

Some or all of the information collected during a contest or sweepstakes may be disclosed publicly. It may also be shared with other third parties as disclosed at the time of collection or in the promotion rules. These third parties may include a provider of prizes in order to update you of your status of your prize or other fulfillment needs or a co-sponsor who may use your Personal Information to administer the promotion or for marketing purposes, but only in conformance with their privacy policy as made available to you at the time of collection. If data will be disclosed or shared in this manner, we will include a notice at the time of collection of such information.

With Your Consent

Where you have provided consent which may be withdrawn at any time, we share your information, including Personal Information, as described at the time of consent, such as when you participate in promotional activities conducted by third parties. In such a case, we will provide you clear notice at the time of collection that the information is being collected on the third-party’s behalf and link to the third-party’s privacy policy.

Other

We may also disclose information about you if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or protect our operations or users. Additionally, in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale we may transfer any and all personal information we collect to the relevant third-party. Lastly, we may disclose information for any other purpose described in this Policy or your User Agreement, or about which we notify you.

Message Boards And Chats

We may make message boards, chat rooms, and other interactive forums available as part of the Services. You should be aware that any information which you post to these interactive forums or otherwise choose to make publicly available, including your Personal Information, may be disclosed and available to all users who have access to that portion of the Sites or Services, and is therefore no longer private. By using these interactive forums, you agree that we are not responsible for any information that you disclose or communicate in such forums, and any disclosures you make are at your own risk.

Control of Personal Information

Our Services aim to provide you with the ability to manage Personal Information we collect from you directly and the means to access, update, and delete it. For example, you can request that we remove your email address from our marketing database, rectify inaccurate or incomplete information in your account, delete information or deactivate your account. In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request a copy of your Personal Information, which can be transmitted to you or another service provider in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, as well as object to our processing of your Personal Information for certain specific purposes (including profiling).

Such requests or objections can be accomplished by contacting us using the contact information below. Under certain circumstances, we may ask you to verify your identity before your request is processed. This will be done free of charge except where it would require a disproportionate effort. We may reject requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical effort (for example, developing a new system or fundamentally changing an existing practice), risk the privacy of others, or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup tapes).

You also have the opportunity to “opt-out” of promotional communications you receive from us by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the promotional e-mail or newsletter you receive or by editing your preference to receive these communications within the “Manage My Email” or similar feature on the individual Sites when you are logged in as a registered user. Please note that despite your indicated email preferences, we may send you administrative emails regarding the Sites and the Services, including, for example, administrative confirmations, and notices of updates to our Policy if we choose to provide such notices to you in this manner unless you request that we not send such emails.

Retention of Personal Information

LivingMatrix will retain your Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Third-party Links and Cookies

The Sites may link to websites operated by third parties that we do not control. We do not monitor, control, or endorse the information collection or privacy practices of any third parties. We strongly encourage you to become familiar with the privacy practices of every website you visit and to contact them if you have any questions about their respective privacy policies and practices. This Policy applies solely to information collected by us through the Sites or Services and does not apply to these third-party websites. The ability to access information of third parties from the Sites or Services, or links to other websites or locations, is for your convenience only and does not signify our endorsement of such third parties, their products, services, websites, locations or their content.

Additionally, we have agreements with companies, sometimes called “Ad Networks,” that serve advertising on the Sites on behalf of third parties. These Ad Networks may place or recognize a unique cookie, sometimes called a “third-party cookie,” on your browser. Ad Networks use Cookies to understand Web usage patterns of people who see advertisements, to control the sequence of advertisements you see, to provide you with the most relevant advertising, and to make sure you don’t see the same ad too many times. Ad Networks may connect information about pages you visit on our Sites with information about pages you visit on other sites and show you advertising based on this combined information. We do not control Ad Networks or what they do with the information they collect. Many Ad Networks participate in the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and abide by NAI principles, which prohibit members from connecting Personal Information to information they collect through Cookies without your explicit consent. If you wish to opt out of participating in advertising programs conducted by NAI member Ad Networks, please go to the NAI Opt-Out site and follow the instructions on that site. After you opt-out, you will still see advertisements from NAI member Ad Networks, but the advertising will not be tailored to your web preferences and usage patterns.

Security

We place a priority on the security of Personal Information, and we undertake reasonable security measures to protect the data that resides on our servers. We also use secure server layer (SSL) encryption software to process all financial transactions that occur on the Site. SSL technology can encrypt Personal Information transmitted over the Internet. However, no security system is impenetrable. We do not warrant the security of our servers, nor do we warrant that your information, including Personal Information, will be completely secure or not be intercepted while being transmitted over the Internet. The security of our Services and the information they store, process and transmit is a top priority. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of the information we collect, we deploy a wide range of technical, physical and administrative safeguards, including: implementing SSL encryption, firewalls, system alerts and other information system security technologies; housing health data in secure facilities that restrict physical and network access; and regularly evaluating and enhancing of our information technology systems, facilities, and information collection, storage and processing practices. We are required to apply reasonable and appropriate measures to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your personal information residing on and processed by our Services. It is important to remember, however, that no system can guarantee 100% security at all times. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the security of information stored on or transmitted to or from our Services.

Policy on Children

The Sites and Services are not directed or intended for individuals under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from such children. If you are under 13 years of age, you should not register or provide Personal Information on the Sites or through the Services. If we later obtain actual knowledge that a user is under 13 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s Personal Information from our systems. If you are the parent or guardian of a child whom you believe has disclosed Personal Information to us, please contact us at info@livingmatrix.com so that we may delete and remove such child’s information from our systems.

Privacy Questions

If you have questions or concerns about this Policy or data processing or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer/Data Protection Officer:

Compliance and Cooperation with Regulatory Authorities

We regularly review our compliance with this Policy. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up.

In addition to making a complaint with LivingMatrix, you also have the right to make complaints about the data processing activities carried out by LivingMatrix directly before the competent data protection authorities. We will work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve such complaints.

Changes to this Policy

LivingMatrix may update this Website Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do change the Policy in a material way, we will post such changes along with their effective date on this page.